BY JUAN RAMÓN JIMÉNEZ
TRANSLATED BY ROBERT BLY
I am not I.
I am this one
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget;
who remains calm and silent while I talk,
and forgives, gently, when I hate,
who walks where I am not,
who will remain standing when I die.
This reminds me of Bulla Ki Jaana Main Kaun - where sufi poet Bulleh Shah wonders who he is: "Who knows who I am." It also reminds me of Walt Whitman's To You: in this poem Whitman goes over how the reader, "you", is not what the reader thinks he is. He is "who will remain standing when I die."
"I am not I." I am the "one who will remain standing when I die." This sentiment reminds me of a mortal interpretation of Kabir's Tu Tu Karta Tu Hua: by saying you you I have killed my you.
Singing oneness!
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